Category MARINE LIFE

Harvard researchers 3D printed an autonomous robot that demonstrates the advantages of soft robots. Just like an octopus, the robot is strong and dexterous enough to grasp objects.

Lori Sanders/Harvard University

Close your eyes, and picture a robot. It’s probably hard and angular, with jerky movements that have inspired dancers for decades. But robots can also be flexible, squishy, and graceful. Researchers at Harvard have created the first autonomous robot that is completely soft. Its design is inspired by the octopus — a creature that is known for its strength and dexterity.

The octopus’s qualities are ideal for modern robotics, which require more flexibility than the hulky machines that have dominated industrial settings for more than half a century...

The Atlantic sturgeon, which is one of the world’s oldest species of fish, can live up to 60 years, reaching a length of of 15 feet (4.6 meters) and a weight of over 800 pounds (360 kg). It’s also endangered, due to past overfishing for its caviar. In order to protect the sturgeon that are left, it’s important to keep fishermen from catching them accidentally. That’s why researchers at the University of Delaware and Delaware State University are calling upon satellites, and an underwater robot known as OTIS.

In previous years, scientists had tracked the migrational routes of tagged sturgeons off the mid-Atlantic coast...

RIVER POLLUTION ROBOT SEEKS OUT CAUSES & CULPRITS-CLICK ‘READ MORE’ TO SEE VIDEO

A new species of robot fish has been spotted in the Kalamazoo River in the state of Michigan, where more than a million gallons of oil spilled in July 2010. Developed primarily by Xiaobo Tan, an associate professor at Michigan State University (MSU), the robot’s sensors detected crude oil at various sites along the river.

Grace (Gliding Robot ACE) differs significantly from this prototype we covered back in 2009, which was based on the yellow perch. It may look more like a torpedo than the catch of the day, sporting a sub-like hull and a pair of huge wings, but that’s intentional. The wings help it to conserve energy by gliding for long periods of time.